Convent of the Minor Friars of Pianetto

Convent attached to the church of St. Mary of the Miracles in Pianetto and built at the same time. It has a precious cloister with porticoes and a central fountain on a trapezoidal plan.

In the chapter house the wooden coffered ceiling has been recovered. Today it houses the “Mons. Domenico Mambrini’ Civic Museum.

The Convent of the Friars Minor Conventual is located in the Borgo di Pianetto next to the Church of St. Mary of the Miracles.

Built at the same time as the church, it was assigned to the Franciscan order of Friars Minor Conventual who, according to some accounts of the time, were of a ‘restless nature’ (Bishop Missiroli, 1705).

The friars left the convent of Pianetto on October 28, 1803 following Pietro Leopoldo’s decree of suppression (1783).

Later, the complex was sold to private individuals (in 1784 Ludovico Casanova Sordi was the owner), a fact that sanctioned the degradation of the property with the closing of the cloister arches and the transformation of the interior rooms to obtain private dwellings and rooms for agricultural use.

Finally, in the eighties, the Municipality of Galeata bought the convent and began a restoration project to recover the original architecture.

The trapezoidal cloister with a central fountain is noteworthy. The inner lunettes of the portico are frescoed with a cycle of paintings from the 17th century, probably depicting events related to Saint Francis’ life (Franciscans were the monks of the convent) and miracles occurred through the intercession of the saint.

Among the frescoes in the cloister, one has been preserved intact depicting the miracle of a woman in childbirth with the inscription “In Arezzo there was a woman who could not give birth, but girded with the halter of a beast… she immediately gave birth without danger” and a barely legible fragment with the inscription “…brothers… having something to eat, Lord sent an angel… beast laden with provisions”. The two fragments can be seen inside the church of S. Maria dei Miracoli (near the apsidal area), while the sinopites are exhibited in the ‘Mons. Domenico Mambrini’ Civic Museum.

Opening hours: Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Also open by reservation for groups on other days.)

Admission fee: Free visit to the cloister; paid visit to the interior (home of the civic museum): € 2.00. Reduced and combined: € 1.00.